For your consideration this lot offers, "Sitting Bull To Earth, Come in Enna", a Native American leather shield made by Guy Reddoor Reddies, a Hunk-Papa Sioux and Turtle Mountain Chippewa artist and great-grandson of the great Hunk-Papa mewdicine man and chief, Sitting Bull. "Sitting Bull To Earth, Come in Enna" suggests Sitting Bull was at the controls, with 'enna' an Indian word roughly translated, "Do you read me?" The shield is full of Native American imagery. The top of the shield shows the Haley-Bopp comet while the moon is in eclipse. The lower part of the shield shows a red buffalo, a falcon, and a set of buffalo tracks. This small shield is Reddies' reproduction of the original larger shield he made for U.S. astronaut Joe Edwards for protection. Edwards, who is part Creek Indian, took the original into space during the eighth Shuttle-MIR docking mission in 1998. The shield now resides at NASA. This shield is signed on the back by the artist with his Indian name, Hunter Falcon. This artwork definitely has a historic and sentimental value for many collectors of Native American Art. It is one of few artworks that has ever traveled into space, not to mention the only Native American Art with such a unique experience. It is also a symbol of Native American involvement in the technology progression of this great nation. This is an awesome piece of Montana Native American history and is accompanied by a Great Falls Tribune newspaper article of when this shield was on display at the Great Falls Native American Art Show in Great Falls, Montana.
This shield is in exceptional condition, no marring noted. Shield measures 14.5"L with sinew wrapped horse hair, just shield 7.25" diameter, metal stand is 17.25"H, base 4.25" diameter.